Broadway: The Golden Age

Page Tools

Related

BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE, BY THE LEGENDS WHO WERE
THERE
Written, directed and edited by Rick McKay
Rated PG
Dendy Opera Quays, Dendy Newtown

A glittering Times Square in the 1940s and 1950s and early 1960s
is packed with theatres advertising stage shows.

The names on the marquees include Marlon Brando, John Raitt,
Elizabeth Ashley, the shows include Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
and Damn Yankees.

A theatre ticket is cheaper than a movie ticket, so almost
everyone goes to see the new shows. This is the world filmmaker
Rick McKay re-creates in his documentary about the peak of the
Broadway stage show.

Broadway: The Golden Age is a nostalgia piece put
together with warmth and care. As a kid, McKay was obsessed with
Broadway shows such as Silk Stockings and Hello,
Dolly!. The question he asks in his documentary is: did a
Broadway golden age actually exist and, if so, what happened to
it?

Considering we're about to watch two hours of Broadway actors
rehashing the good ol' days, McKay's questions seem - and mostly
are - rhetorical devices to glue the interviews together.

But it doesn't much matter. McKay spent five years with a
digital camera, recording interviews with more than 90 ageing
stars, and because of his obvious affection for his topic, the idea
of a Broadway golden age takes root.

The bulk of the documentary is given over to the stars talking
about their passion for the Broadway stage, which doesn't sound
engrossing but is, because they're so passionate. It's a film that
comprises the kind of talking heads you're happy to hear talk.
Heads include Bea Arthur, Angela Lansbury, Jerry Orbach, Carol
Burnett, Ann Miller, Chita Rivera, Patricia Neal, Stephen Sondheim
and Shirley MacLaine.

Burnett remembers arriving in New York with a cardboard suitcase
and nowhere to go. She went to a posh hotel she couldn't afford and
started to cry. Later, she and three other aspiring actresses
pitched in to buy a good dress, which they wore in turn to
auditions.

Others remember how much they paid to get into Broadway shows -
55 cents, or $1.10, or $3, until it got outrageous in 1968, says
Orbach, and rose to $15. All of the stars remember "second acting",
in which a poor, ticketless actor snuck into a theatre for the
second act of a play. The lucky ones found an empty seat and went
unnoticed by the ushers. McKay also retells the story of how
MacLaine got her start in the 1954 musical The Pajama Game
by filling in for the injured Carol Haney.

My only criticism of McKay's documentary is that it rambles, and
in the last half-hour feels same-same. What elevates it from a
kitsch swamp of memories is the glorious footage of Broadway shows
he includes.

Watching tantalising moments of Ethel Merman in Gypsy,
hearing the voice of Brando in the stage production of A
Streetcar Named Desire, and seeing Ben Gazzara in the original
version of Cat On a Hot Tin Roof sent shivers up my
spine.

This documentary is for a particular audience, but nonetheless
Broadway: The Golden Age will draw more people into that
audience. And note that McKay has only scratched the surface - he
has not even started on the significant musicians, directors and
playwrights of the era.